Exodus Chapters 14 & 15
Finally, the people of Israel had escaped from Egypt. At last they were free. What a wonderful feeling it must have been, they were no longer Pharaoh’s slaves.
The Lord led them toward the Red Sea to a place called Elham, on the edge of the desert. There they set up their tents and made camp.
As they traveled along, the Lord was very kind to them; He went before them in a cloud to show them the way. The cloud was shaped like a pillar reaching up to Heaven. They could see it all the time. As they walked along, it moved on ahead of them so that they could follow it and know where God wanted them to go.
In the daylight it looked like a cloud, but at night it became a pillar of fire. It gave them light at night, so they could travel whenever the Lord wanted them to, day or night.
Almost as soon as the Israelis left Egypt, Pharaoh and his officers were sorry they had let his officers were sorry they had let them go. “Why did we ever let them get away from us? They asked.
Then Pharaoh and his soldiers got into their chariots and chased after the people of Israel. They caught up to them as they were camping by the Red Sea. The Israelites saw the Egyptians coming and were frightened and cried out to God. Then they turned against Moses’ and blamed him for getting them into trouble. It would have been better to stay and be slaves to the Egyptians, they said, than to be killed in the desert. But Moses told them not to be afraid. “Wait and see the Lord will do for you, “he said. “For the Egyptians you have seen today will never be seen again. The Lord will fight for you, and you won’t need to do a thing.”
When Pharaoh and his army had almost caught up with them, the cloud in front of them moved behind them, the cloud in front of them moved behind them, and came between them and Pharaohs army. The cloud was dark on the side where Pharaoh’s was, and his soldiers couldn’t see. But the side of the cloud that was turned toward Israel was as bright as fire and gave the people light in their camp!
The Lord said to Moses’ “Tell the people of Israel to start marching to the sea. When they get there, point your shepherds’ staff toward the sea, and a path will open up in front of you through the water, and My people will go across on dry ground!”
So, Moses pointed his staff toward the sea, as the Lord had told him to, and the water opened up ahead of them, making a path across the bottom of the sea. The water was piled high on each side of them like walls, but they walked across on dry ground and were soon safe on the other side!
The path through the water was still there the next morning, so when Pharaoh saw what had happened, he and his chariots, started across between the walls of water. But the Lord made the wheels come off the Egyptian Chariots, so they ground to a stop.
Then the Egyptians soldiers panicked. “Turn around! Let’s get out of here!” they shouted. “The Lord is fighting against us; He is for the Israelis.”
But before they could get out, the Lord told Moses to point his staff toward the sea again. When he did, the water came together and covered the Egyptians, drowning the entire army. Not one solider was left alive. The Israelis saw them lying dead upon the seashore where the waters washed them up.
But Moses and the Israelis were safe on the other side of the Red Sea. There they sang a song of praise to the Lord for saving them from Pharaoh.
Questions:
How did God guide the Israelis by night and by day?
How did God use the cloud to keep the Israelis safe?
How did the Israelis get across the Red Sea?
What happened when the Egyptians tried to follow?
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